Storage World

Technically, Droboshare falls outside the scope of what we consider a NAS device, an integrated box with at least one hard disk and an Ethernet connection so you can share the device on a network.

Nevertheless, the Drobo deserves mention. This USB direct-attached storage appliance, Droboshare, provides a four-bay enclosure for adding your own drives to the unit. The Drobo uses data virtualization in lieu of RAID to provide data redundancy over multiple drives, as well as to monitor drives for disk failure.

Rather than release a dedicated NAS, Data Robotics came up with the Droboshare. This add-on lets you link up to two Drobo units to your network. The Drobo’s simple dashboard software automates the network configuration process. Since it’s not a native NAS device, you don’t get features like FTP, Web server, print server, or even Web-based drive management. But you can unplug the Drobo from your network.

Click for more: Droboshare, Network Attached Companion for Drobo

Tags: hard disk

With the prices of traditional hard drives continuing to drop faster than a lead balloon, manufacturers are seeking technologies that not only can surpass those drives in performance and flexibility, but that can also deliver a higher financial return. On both counts, the SSD, or solidstate drive, appears to be the technology of choice.

In December, Intel unveiled its Z-P140 PATA (Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment) SSD line of tiny drives with relatively tiny (2GB and 4GB) capacities. Although the drives are smaller than a penny, their application is limited to small mobile devices and likely expensive ones, at that. But the company has indicated that it soon plans to ship SATA (Serial ATA)-II SSDs in 1.8- and 2.5-inch sizes in capacities up to 160GB. Intel also said these drives will boast better read speeds than a competing drive from Samsung and that SSDs will see price drops of 50% in 2009 and another 50% in 2010.

OCZ also is entering the SSD arena, offering drives with capacities of 32GB and 64GB and impressive read speeds of 120MB per second and write speeds of 100MB per second. Like other SSDs, the OCZ entries have no moving parts, feature low power consumption, and have high shock resistance.

Tags: hard disk

Online storage can be an ilow cost option for those people who are running small and medium businesses.

Online storage, sometimes also known as offsite storage, involves paying a monthly or yearly fee to a web-based backup service provider who allows you to save and retrieve your data over the Internet.

This type of service can be a good alternative to your existing backup solution, which allowing you to backup important files and store them to a secure, offsite location. Protected from theft and fire.

A important to select these backup service provider is data redundancy. They must have multiple sites where your files are stored, ensuring that if one site fails, the others will still have your files intact.

With online storage, your files are immediately accessible from any Internet connected computer, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Not only does this make distributing particular files or presentations to your colleagues easier, but it also means that you no longer always need to haul around your heavy laptop computer!

Simply connect online from any computer and you can instantly access your files.